Mobile and tablet Apps still remain one of the hottest trends in technology, with over one million available on each major platform. App downloads have topped the 50 billion mark on both the App Store and Google Play. The competition is extremely fierce, but if you can create an app that enriches people lives and compels consumers to download it, use it, and tell their friends and family about it, the possibilities are virtually limitless.
Do you have an idea for a amazing mobile app? Are you wondering how you should begin developing it? These 3 basic top tips can help you lead a successful app development process:
When attempting to bring your app concept to life, it often all too tempting to over load it with all the bells and whistles, adding an extra feature here and a function there. However you would be extremely wise to resist the temptation.
1. Focus on New Features
Before planning any new app outline the basic requirements of the user and remember people have short attention spans when using phones or tablets, where there are numerous opportunities for users to get distracted.
I recommend focusing on a few key features and making them as good as they can possibly be. Then, as your user base grows, you can add new features and scale as per demand.
In the end, apps that embrace natural human behaviour are the ones that create an impact – and ultimately disrupt the market. The ideal “UX” should align with your app’s primary user base and anticipate their needs, motivations, and engagement before evaluating the technological component.
2. Deliver a Great User Experience
To produce a successful app, you need to start with the user experience and work backwards to the technology.
When you set out to build an app, you’re essentially testing a hypothesis. However, you also need to evaluate your original hypothesis. The user experience should consider the following areas that encompasses the complete user centred design:
- Establish key stakeholders
- Competitor analysis
- User groups
- Personas
- Use cases and user paths
- Information Architecture design
- Wireframe design (Interactive)
- User testing programs
- Interface design
More detail can be found in my previous blog post here – UX Process explained in a little more detail.
3. Built in Analytics is a must
Implementing analytics let’s you track app performance and identify what features are being used, and which are being neglected. Such data gives you valuable insights into the users’ app adoption, and allows you to iterate features based off your findings.
Apps often become popular for reasons that do not fully align with the developer’s or clients hypothesis, and features that weren’t originally expected to be the most popular drive the development into areas maybe not otherwise thought as such a high priority. Also trends can happen and occur quickly, so its often those how react first to these trends reap the rewards, so incorporating analytics is a must to understand your users and their needs.
Conclusion
In conclusion there are many factors to consider when starting to design an app but please don’t forget any of these top 3 important tips or your product will almost definitely suffer as a result in the long term. And also please remember its putting the customer first that will ultimately keep them coming back to your product, which will allow it continuously grow and be a success.
Please leave any comments below, thanks for reading.
